Dirty Santa Gift Exchange Ideas

Just last week I was informed while sipping on my peppermint mocha that we were going to have a dirty Santa gift exchange here in the office and I needed to find some dirty Santa gift exchange ideas. After hearing “dirty Santa” I nearly spit my coffee out thinking what in the name of all that is holy this could be.

But much to my delight, and after my mild coronary, I was told that I need not be worried about pulling some slinky garter belt from the bottom of a Victoria’s Secret bag. Like me, if you are reading this you are probably wondering, just what is a dirty Santa gift exchange and what are some great dirty Santa gift exchange ideas?

What is a Dirty Santa Gift Exchange?

First of all, it’s something that you can do with Grandma in the room or the little ones playing along if you like. The Dirty Santa gift exchange hasn’t been given its name for any “dirty” reason. It’s actually called dirty because you have to play a little dirty to get the gift that you want.

Dirty Santa Gift Exchange Ideas

So now that you know what a Dirty Santa Gift Exchange is let’s look at some Dirty Santa Gift Exchange Ideas that are perfect for the occasion. Here are a few funny ones that I’ve found searching around the internet, but you may choose to go with something more conservative.

How to Play?

So here’s how it works, for this gift exchange game everyone will bring in a wrapped gift being sure to put no names on the present and staying within the same general price range as the rest of the bunch.

You can choose to put limitations on the gifts. For example, at office parties you might decide to make the dirty Santa gift exchange ideas non-specific to gender or age. However, the game often works out fine either way as the gift that they win might end up being something they ultimately decide to pass on to their wives or husbands . . . which for many Christmas gift givers can be just as nice in these money-aware times as they can add this gift under the tree for their sweetie.

Once everyone is ready to start the game, there will be several pieces of paper with numbers on them put into a hat or a box. For example, if fifteen people are playing, the numbers will be 1-15.

Everyone will then draw a number. This will decide who goes in what order. The person who draws the number one will also get another turn at the end of the game. I’ll talk more about this later on but the ultimate reason that the first person will get another chance is because the first person doesn’t have many options. Since no dirty Santa gift exchange presents are open yet, they have no choice but to choose a dirty Santa gift exchange present from the table to start the game.

After this, as player number two steps up for their turn, player two now has the option to “steal” player one’s gift or open a new present. The very first rule of the Dirty Santa gift exchange is that if player B steals from player C then player C will not be able to steal that gift back from player B until the next round begins. Spouses cannot steal from each other either because there might be a little strategy and cheating involved!

So when do you know when a round ends? A round will end in one of these two ways . . . if someone chooses to open a gift as opposed to stealing one – the round is over. If three steals occur, the third person must open a wrapped gift without stealing and then the round comes to an end.

Now there can only be three steals in each round and if a gift has been stolen three times, the person that steals it for the third time gets to keep it. It cannot be taken after this. It is owned goods!

Last but not least, as we talked about in the beginning of the article, when the last person has drawn a number and the final round is over, the first person has the chance to steal from anyone they like – if they want. The option to open a new gift is no longer available because we know that all the gifts are now opened. If the person chooses to not steal – the game is over. If they choose to steal a gift, a new special round will begin. This round has the same rules as each round before. Again if the present is stolen three times . . . it’s locked in to the third person.

So those are a few of the Dirty Santa Gift Exchange Ideas I’ve found. What are some of your favorite Dirty Santa Gift Exchange Ideas ?

Didn’t see a unique gift idea on our blog that fits your needs? Take a look at some of our other unique gift idea articles:

Normally, there is a designated (maximum) amount set to spend. My favorite that I have done and got alot of laughs is buying a 4 pack of toilet paper and making a small slit in the center of the plastic. I then inserted a $10.00 bill and used clear tap over the cut. At the end when people are through fighting over the presents, whoever got the toilet paper I told them that they needed to examine it a little closer. Everyone was kicking themselves after that person pulled out the money from within one of the rolls of toilet paper. That was the best dirty santa that I have yet to experience.

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